Sewing hapiness

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Why simplicity?

As you may have noticed, there is a section on the top menu called “Simplicity”. Some of you have asked me about it and I thought it was about time to explain a little bit more about its (coming) content.

As you may have read in one of my previous posts, I’ve made a few major life-changing decisions in the last few months, one of them being relocating overseas (aka going back to my home country after maaaaaany years abroad), and the second one being having a baby on the way.

When I started thinking about the logistics of relocating to Spain, I realised that it was golden opportunity to do a massive clear out of the stuff that I was not going to need in my new life or that I just didn’t love enough to take it through the whole process of moving, which is arduous and exhausting. So I decided to use my never-ending commutes to do research about ways of shedding the amount of stuff that one owns. I’ll be honest, it was hard at first, but after a couple of weeks I managed to gather a scary amount of stuff to either take down to the charity shop or just to get rid of. This turned out to be one of the most cathartic exercises I’ve ever done in my life.

But this was only the beginning of a new way to see life. Since I started to get rid of the things that didn’t fulfil a purpose in my life anymore, my head started to become clearer and clearer about other (more important) things. After cutting down on the objects I owned, I tried to apply this concept of simplicity to other areas of my life and clearly identifying the things I wanted to spend time doing and the ones that I didn’t, but I will leave this for another post.

As I mentioned above, the other major life-changing event that has made me really think about cutting down on not only material things but also on time-wasting activities, is the baby we have on the way. On the one hand, we live in a 1-bed flat, and even though it is a spacious one, babies can somehow take up much more room than two adults. This has “forced” us to be creative with our very valuable storage space and also to think about what we really need and don’t need for the new arrival. (Of course I will be sharing all the projects and space-saving tips on the blog!) In an attempt to take my simplifying techniques a bit further, I came across a book called The life-changing magic of tidying up, and I have to say, it has actually been life changing for me. I will be writing a full review on this book, but for the time being this is a list of things I have achieved since I read it:

– a maternity nightgown for the hospital (and self-drafted the pattern)

– a summer robe

… since I tidied my bedroom storage, I have:

– got rid of some clothing items that had escaped my initial clean out

– fitted more clothes in my allocated space

– a clearer view of the items I’ve got (and love)

– managed to put all the winter blankets away

– a clearer view of my fabric stash

… since I tidied my bathroom, I have:

– a clear view of the stock I have (soaps, shampoos, sunscreen, make-up bits,…)

– a decluttered sink surface

– a more relaxing, cleaner space

… and most importantly, I have relaunched my blog!! Yaaay!!

Well, this turned out to be quite a long post in the end so I am going to finish with just one more thought to get you motivated to embrace simplicity. Letting material things go can feel like a big task, but luckily it is something that can be learnt and systematised. And once you’ve let go, you will really think twice before bringing something new into your home!